Comments

Hi, first off I'd like to say your gallery is wonderful, I'm sure you get it a lot, but it's true.

Second I'd like to just get straight to the point! Would you mind explaining to me your thought process for the rune tattoos you made? I'm writing a graphic story and I have to do something like runes or symbols, and your piece was inspiring. The representations are great, I'm assuming it was something like picturing that quality in action and then drawing a simpler altered version of it?

You don't have to answer because I understand it might seem like giving away a secret or something, but thank you for reading anyways

1) I genuinely wish I got told something like that all the time. It would do wonders toward my self-confidence.

So, Thanks

2)I'm too used to working with tattoos. I don't have some (I hate to sound pretentious here but) "Artistic" process when it comes working on a design. I do have a "Scientific" one. When someone request something it feels like homework to me. Being paid to create "Artwork" for me means the emphasis is on the 'work'. And fair warning, I love homework. Like I really really really love homework.

In this case; the word mattered more than whole. We'll call this bit part A]

A] If it were a "Name" then you would only make a design to incorporate the whole name and in the end you could make out the name in the design. This was meant to be a universal language, something that came before language. My thought process then became strip each word to its core, remove its prefix/suffix or sexual inclination. Find the core definition or if it had a Latin root and remember if it is intended for a spell what is the spell supposed to be use for, like why "Block/Deflect" has two definitions, because the root is deflect but since it's not the more common phrase I also added the word "Block" so people can relate "Ah, it's like a shield. That makes sense because it looks a bit like a shield."

Everything after that came down to more of a science. Pick the phrase, find a single word to simplify the phrase, strip the word to its core, apply/compare different runic samples from different cultures.

That last bit is where it turns to wholly different step but I would make sure to separate them entirely. Like make the list of maybe 40-90 commands, pick 25 I really attached to, translate those. That might take a few days. Then I would move onto the design part.

B] I used these really great and old-timey easily accessibly references;

THIS is not how I would approach every design project but Cassie's was so particular and we discussed it so many time/ways.

C] I should point out I had a lot of artistic license. Out of the 25 word/glyph/runes that I'd decided on using I would end up making maybe 3 variations. Sometimes if I really got Obsessive Compulsive it got as high as 8. 10-18 glyphs would make it to Cassie with 1 or 2 Variations. I made sure she got my finest and favorites so I could live with what would eventually be circulated. She would whittle it down to maybe 12 runes over all. That would be one set.

The process would start all over again for the second set a few years later, only I decided to go much bigger. Much much bigger. This is how we came down to a set twice as big. You can imagine how much I must love the process and how much a mess my desk was for the months it took.

I've done different designs, with different types of glyphs for different project and never repeated this process because each project really does demand a different aesthetic.

I would not recommend this process. I am a maniac who loves homework.

—

This is a lot of info for one reply which is why I procrastinated replying, not because I forgot, but because I really wanted to delve into and not I apologizes for you having to get this far, if you got this far, that I totally love you for it

To me it doesn't matter about giving away process since it's not exactly like process can be exactly repeated even if it can be learned. Everything is derivative of something but there's even art in that.

William S. Borough said "Art belongs to the living artist" - "Steal everything" which there is room for argument over, since he didn't exactly mean directly but you get what I mean

Your process whether artistic or scientific is extremely interesting. Whether it's complicated or simple I can see the genius behind it, but I personally found it easy to understand just by looking at. I did read the whole thing because you took a lot of the time to write a very detailed explanation which I thank you for. (If I didn't know any better I'd guess you spent the last 20 days writing this comment x3)

I'm sure the guy meant take inspiration from everything or something. Well, he actually probably meant it's okay to copy tactics or styles or whatever from dead artists, but really who knows.

Thank you very much for the advice. I do want to let you know again you are a great artist even if your genre isn't something I take interest in, your skill is very obvious, I know I'm technically feeding the shark a bunch of fish after it told me it was hungry but I just wanted to make it especially clear that I didn't say it just so you'd help me

So yeah, thank you very much, it was nice meeting such a helpful person